Jordan U-16 women’s football team to play Laos

AMMAN — The Jordan national women’s U-16 football team plays Laos on Wednesday in their second match in Group A qualifiers for the 2017 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-16 Women’s Championship.

Jordan lost to hosts Thailand 2-1 in the opening match and are set to play Myanmar on September 3 and Guam on September 5.

In other matches, Thailand took the group lead after a 5-2 win over Laos while Myanmar lost 5-2 to Laos but came back to score a big win beating Guam 11-0.

The qualifiers have brought together 24 teams playing in four groups with the top team from each group advancing to the championship. Last edition’s top four — North Korea, Japan, China and Thailand — have qualified.

Jordan’s squad is missing some players who are on the U-17 team line-up currently preparing for the Women’s World Cup kicking off September 30 in the Kingdom.

Japan have won three of the past six editions of the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship. Jordan’s U-16 team did not qualify to the 2015 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship after qualifying in 2013.

Jordan women’s U-19 national team is also reading for Asian Group A qualifiers for the 2017 AFC U-19 Women’s Championship. The qualifiers set for October 29 will see Jordan play alongside Australia, Singapore and Lebanon and the Northern Mariana Islands. The top team from each group moves to the championship in 2017. The women’s senior national team has also regrouped to start preparations for qualifiers for the 2018 AFC Women’s Championship starting in April 2017.